Brendan Foster by Brendan Foster and Cliff Temple
Thanks to my mate Tom Dooley in America for posting this book over to me. He thought that I would enjoy the read and I certainly did. It was an inspirational tale which followed the career of English runner Brendan Foster. The book was written in 1978 and published while his career was still in full flight. It covers his time up till March 1978. At that point, he had still to win gold in the 1978 Commonwealth Games 10,000m in Edmonton and compete in his third Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980, where he finished 11th in the Olympics 10,000m final, almost 40 seconds behind the winner, Ethiopia's Miruts Yifter.
At the time the book was written, he could not have guessed what the future held. He retired after the 1980 Olympics, joining Nike in 1981 as UK managing director, progressing to European managing director, Vice-President Marketing (Worldwide) and Vice-President of Nike Europe. He also worked for BBC Television, commentating and reporting on the sport at every major event from 1983 to 2017. In 1977, he had helped organise the "Gateshead Fun Run", a pioneering running event. In 1981, he founded the Great North Run, an annual half marathon from Newcastle upon Tyne to South Shields. The race became the biggest running event in the UK, and one of the biggest half marathons in the world. By 2014, the race had been run by over 1 million competitors, the first IAAF event to pass this milestone.
In 2010, he was inducted into the England Athletics Hall of Fame, to go with his MBE, awarded in 1976. He was finally knighted in the 2020 Birthday Honours for ‘services to international and national sport and to culture in North East England’ - a recognition well earned.
A summary of his career reads impressively:
He was a triple Olympian, placing fifth in the 1972 Munich 1500m, third in the 10,000m and fifth in the 5000m in the 1976 Montreal Olympics (after setting an Olympic record of 13:20.3 in a heat) and 11th in the 1980 Moscow Olympics 10,000m. He won bronze (1971 1500m) and gold (1974 5000m) in the European Championships and bronze (1970 1500m), silver (1974 5000m and gold (1978 10,00m) in the Commonwealth Games. He had a remarkable range of personal bests from 800m to the marathon, with the 3000m and two mile marks being former world records -- 1:51.1 (800m), 3:37.6 (1500m), 3:55.9 (mile), 7:35.2 (3000m), 8:13.7 (2 mile), 13:14.6 (5000m), 27:30.3 (10,000m) and 2hrs 15min 49sec (marathon).
He was not a full time athlete. In fact, he worked all the time. He was a school teacher from 1970-74 and then Sports and Recreation Director at Gateshead until 1981. He was married in 1972 and started a family during this time. As such, he had to balance his sporting career with his work life and his family, yet he somehow managed to train twice or even three times a day and was a high volume trainer. From 1974-78 he ran about 120 miles per week, both through the winter and into his summer competition phase. And some of his afternoon track sessions were brutal ones, like 10x400m at sub 60 sec pace, with 90 secs between reps. This sort of background enabled him to pop in 60 secs laps midrace and spreadeagle the field. By nature, he was a front runner, yet he could run a strategic race when he needed to.
He had his share of injuries but always bounced back. He also overcame what sounded like anxiety and stress related issues and anaemia. He was not an instant champion but eventually became one after many years of training and racing. His first races were in late 1962, at interschool meets and it was not until 1970 that he made his first international - the Commonwealth Games. When interviewed recently, he talks about his career and early influences as follows
I was very lucky in that as a schoolboy, I met Stan Long (who was also my coach) who became my coach. He was a running evangelist. He wasn’t the most scientific coach the world had known but he loved running. He used to say to us just go out and enjoy it. Don’t time it. We used to say why ten miles when we only race a mile. If the gadgetry had been around in his day, he wouldn’t have recommended it, or known how to use it.
If I hadn’t been a good runner, I’d have been a bad runner. We all enjoyed it even if everyone didn’t end up running in the Olympics. Most of the other guys I trained with still run now. We worked and trained during the week and raced at weekends. Later in my career we got paid a bit but that wasn’t why we did it. I didn’t run to pay the mortgage. I wouldn’t have enjoyed that. It’s different now. It’s their careers. They are professionals.
The book was a wonderful read and it took me less than a week to complete it. An inspirational story.
All the above are well discussed in the book. Definitely one for the bookshelf of any sporting enthusiast.
